Escape from Demo Hell
Ever feel like you are spinning your wheels doing demos to clients who don't really know what they want? One week they want you to do the "dog and pony" show for the marketing folks, the next week senior management want a glimpse, then IT, and then ......marketing has a "few more questions". To make it worse, you know that at least two of you r competitors are also being asked to do the same thing.
This problem is acute when the solution you are pitching has to be approved by various disjointed departments; perhaps it needs to work within the existing I.T. infrastructure, support both a remote sales force and a call centre, provide tools for marketing and provide reporting functionality to finance. Each user group may have distinct needs and be interested in different aspects of your product.
Many sales organizations waste considerable time pushing their solutions on companies who are simply not ready to make a decision.
Why does this happen? Most companies immediate response to any new strategic direction is to call up some vendors (perhaps after taking a look at what Gartner or Forrester have to say) and have them "come in and show us your stuff." Despite most salespeople's best efforts to prequalify, these appointments are often completely fruitless , or at very least, less than productive.
Perhaps the best thing a sales person can do is say no! Sacrilege perhaps, but here's what I propose: encourage the client to consider an independent evaluation process before you do your demo.
While no sales person wants to send a prospect away, clients who perform this due diligence will make better choices are far more likely to become advocates of the products they select. Those who make poor choices will be dissatisfied and become the dissenting voices no company wants - especially in these "word-of-mouth" times.
My firm has worked with many clients to ensure that they make appropriate decisions with confidence. Our particular area of expertise relates to tools for use in fields such as CRM, Data Mining, Database marketing, Reporting and Business Intelligence. In these fields, as in many others, tool decisions are not just about technology but are business decisions. As such, the process we employ begins with business strategy and success factors.
As an independent facilitator we guide stakeholders through a discussion that ensures the organization's unique business processes and high-level requirements are understood. These business needs, along with their technical ones, typically form the basis of a vendor RFP/RFI and will assist us in developing an appropriate short-list for consideration.
In addition to not truly understanding what they need, many companies struggle with how to evaluate the choices once they are presented. We counsel clients to decide upon the evaluation up front and we have developed a process for establishing the appropriate evaluation criteria and weighting. While sometimes there are "showstopper" price or functionality considerations, in most cases there are a variety of "greys" which must be weighed. These considerations are rarely just related to functionality and technical compatibility but also consider softer items like reputation and service level commitments. It is amazing how often decisions become crystal clear when stakeholders are forced to make trade-offs between the relative importance of different items.
Establishing this framework up-front becomes critical to efficient decision-making and gaining consensus between disparate groups. It avoids people being swayed by "cool" functionality they won't use and by smooth sales people! Don't worry you can still turn on your sales charm!
The advantages for the salesperson in establishing this rigor are many.
1) The right questions are asked the first time - sparing you redundant visits.
2) Decisions are made based on the real value of your tool and its applicability to the client need.
3) You are not wasting time chasing non-existent opportunities.
4) Few surprises from new players arriving on the scene at the end of the process; they should all have been there from the beginning.
5) The real decision-makers are in the room.
Recently one of the vendors chosen by our client told us, "We have never been involved in such a rigorous and fair process. It was clear what was expected of us and what we needed to do to meet the client's needs. Thank you."
So, save yourself from "demo hell" and recommend your prospects employ a rigorous independent process from the beginning.
Emma Warrillow manages a unique team of business consultants who specialize in enabling marketing strategies by building bridges between our clients' data and their people, processes and tools. To learn more about the CRM Tool Selection SolutionTM contact her at 416-699-5730 x1 or emma@emmawarrillow.com
